International Admissions

Students who live abroad or who completed their prior education abroad are welcome to study at the FernUniversität in Hagen. You can find a summary of the most important information about applications and enrollment for international students below.

For further questions about or assistance with enrolling at the FernUniversität with international qualifications, the International Student Admissions Office is your first point of contact.

In order to enroll in a bachelor's degree program you will need a school leaving certificate or other qualification which is comparable to the German Abitur.

In order to enroll in a master's degree program, you must have completed a higher education degree which is comparable to the required German degree.

Whether your prior qualifications are considered comparable to the required German qualifications for admission is determined by the guidelines of Germany's Central Office for Foreign Education. You can find more information about these guidelines at the Central Office for Foreign Education's "anabin" information portal. Anabin is unfortunately only available in German.

• Anabin - information regarding the recognition of foreign educational credentials (German)

The FernUniversität’s International Student Admissions Office will check the comparability of your educational credentials as part of the admissions process.

The FernUniversität's degree programs are primarily taught in German. Applicants who did not complete their prior educational credentials at a German-speaking institution must provide a recognized certification of their German language proficiency. The FernUniversität does not offer any preparatory German language courses or exams.

Language Certifications Recognized at the FernUniversität:

• TestDaF (short for "Test Deutsch als Fremdsprache," or "Test of German as a Foreign Language") language exam with a score of at least level 3 on all four sections of the exam
  TestDaF Institut
• DSH (short for "Deutsche Sprachprüfung für den Hochschulzugang" or "German Language Exam for University Entrance") language exam with a score of at least level 1
  More about the DSH (German)
• Passing score on the German section of the final exam of a German Studienkolleg, or preparatory course
  Studienkollegs in Germany
• Goethe-Zertifikat C1 or C2 exam
  Language exams at the Goethe-Institut
• Other recognized language exams and certificates (PDF 73 KB)

As the FernUniversität has moved over to an online enrollment system, you no longer need to officially certify copies of your documents for enrollment. Simply scan your documents and attach them to your application in digital form. Please do not submit any documents in an editable form (e.g. Word documents) – documents should be submitted as PDFs or JPEGs.

If you do need to certify copies of documents for any other reason:

Any German public authority with an official stamp (or "Dienstsiegel") may certify copies. The certification, which must be written in German, confirms that the copy matches the original document.

If a German public authority within Germany refuses to certify a copy of a document written in a foreign language, you can turn to your country's consulate or embassy in Germany, the FernUniversität's regional and study centers, or churches organized under German public law.

Outside of Germany, the only official institutions which may certify copies and translations are German embassies and consulates or local FernUniversität regional and study centers. The exceptions to this rule are the German-speaking countries Austria and Switzerland. In these countries, an official public authority or public notary may certify your documents.

• More information on certifying your documents (German)

Any documents written in a language other than German or English must be translated into German and submitted as an officially certified copy. The translation must be carried out by an officially sworn (“vereidigt”) translator or interpreter.

Since such translations can be costly, please do not send us the original translation. You can have a copy of the translation officially certified by a public institution, just as you can with the original document.

For enrollment purposes, you can simply scan the original and the certified translation and submit them as a PDF or JPEG.

All full- and part-time students in Germany are required to show proof of health insurance coverage at enrollment. If you live abroad and are not bound by the German requirement to carry health insurance, you can explain this in your application. In this case, you do not need to submit documentation of your health insurance.

If you live in Germany, you must submit proof of your health insurance coverage with your application for admittance. You can find an overview of the forms of documentation we accept here:

More information about health insurance (German)

As a rule, it is not possible to receive a student visa for a distance learning program at the FernUniversität, since the study materials can be sent abroad and you can study at the FernUniversität from outside of Germany. Exceptions are only made for certain individual seminars, internships, or in-person exams.